Many livestock feeders include a peripheral wall enclosure with head and neck stocks enclosing an area for receiving feed such as hay, and for allowing access to livestock for feeding.
The feeders serve the useful purpose of receiving and holding feed in a central location. However, no provision is made for controlling access to the feeders, or for timing the feedings. The result is often that the livestock will continue feeding so long as feed is available. Overfeeding is dangerous for some animals. Further, this often results in the feed being pulled from the feeder and strewn across the ground, wasting the feed.
A solution is to portion the amount of feed in accordance with the number of animals feeding, and to time delivery of the individual portions to the feeder. This is a difficult and time consuming task.
The present invention offers a solution to the above problems by providing a gate mountable to a feeder with a lift that can be selectively operated to permit controlled access to the feeder. This allows for the feeder to be filled less often, while enabling controlled feed times. The result is fewer trips to the feeder to replenish the feed, and more efficient, controlled feeding times.
This and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of a preferred form of the invention.